FEDBET Warns 80 Per Cent of Romania’s Legal Gambling Market Will Be Wiped Out by Year End

Romania’s regulated gambling sector faces severe contraction as local administrative delays prevent renewal of authorisations. FEDBET, the Federation of Gambling Organisers in Romania, has warned that 80 per cent of authorised gambling machines and locations will exit the market by the end of the year. This shift will not eliminate demand but will redirect it to unlicensed channels beyond state oversight.

The number of legal slots will fall from 43,306 in March to 9,000 at the beginning of 2027. On November 1, 15,579 slot machines held valid authorisation. Absent local council decisions, that number drops to 9,096 on January 1, 2027.

Administrative Delays Drive Accelerated Market Losses

The root cause remains purely administrative. Less than 4 per cent of Romania’s approximately 3,100 administrative-territorial units have adopted the decisions required under GEO no. 7/2026, even though the 60-day deadline expired in April. Without those decisions, mayoralties cannot issue local authorizations, and the ONJN cannot renew exploitation licenses, as first reported by G3 Newswire.

8,500 jobs have been affected so far. The Ministry of Finance included a loss in gambling taxes in its draft budget rectification for 2026. FEDBET estimates broader losses—including income taxes, social contributions, and corporate taxes. At EU level, 72 per cent of the online gambling market is black market, with turnover near €92bn and member states recording €22bn in losses during 2025 alone.

Alexandru Domșa, President of FEDBET, said: “The closure of an authorised location does not mean that people stop playing. A large part of them end up on sites without a license, where no one verifies age, there are no deposit limits or protection measures, and the state does not charge anything. The first thing that gets lost in a crash is player protection. In other words, the game doesn’t disappear; the control, instead, does.”

Domșa added: “The figure of the Ministry of Finance only shows what was lost before the authorisations began to expire en masse. The real cost will be seen in the coming months and does not stop at the taxes specific to this field: each job eliminated means contributions and taxes that the state no longer collects.”

Forward Path for Supervised Operations

FEDBET urges the Government and Parliament to adopt transitional rules immediately so compliant operators can continue until local decisions are finalised. Without such measures, the state loses visibility into player activity, tax collection, and protections for minors and vulnerable persons. Regulators and operators should treat the coming two months as decisive for determining whether supervised gambling survives in Romania or yields entirely to uncontrolled channels.